The International Cricket Council (ICC) is contemplating reducing the number of teams in the Champions Trophy tournament from 12 to eight, ICC president Ehsan Mani said on Sunday.

"We are looking at the possibility of reducing the teams to eight in the ICC Trophy to make it more competitive," Mani told reporters at Eden Gardens.

Under the proposed format, the host country and top five teams in the ICC one-day rankings would get direct entry while the other four with Test status would play each other for the two remaining places, said Mani.

The Champions Trophy, held every two years since 1998, is the second-biggest global cricketing event after the World Cup.

Mani, whose tenure has been extended for a year until June 2006, denied the ICC had threatened to refuse India the 2006 edition over a tax exemption row.

"There have been no threats from the ICC which has only asked the Indian government to waive taxes on the event and we have been given a positive response by them," said Mani, a Pakistani based in England.

India lost the right to stage the 2002 Champions Trophy because it would not exempt the tournament from tax.

"The ICC has given India three months to sort out the matter and we hope for a positive outcome," he said.

Mani said the ICC cricket committee was also considering a few changes to make one-day cricket less predictable.

"We realise the concerns of a lot of people that one-day cricket is getting predictable. The cricket committee is considering a change in the field restrictions for the first 15 overs," he said.

"The proposal is to leave it to the bowling side whether they want to use it in the first 15 overs or in the last."

Mani said the Twenty-20 format of one-day cricket — which sees 20-overs-a-side matches — would take time to flourish.

"Twenty-20 is played in England but not at the national level. Australia started it in their last season and so did New Zealand recently, but it will take time to flourish," Mani said.

The ICC president disagreed with Pakistan's proposal of having two neutral umpires in limited-overs cricket.

"We have two neutral umpires in Tests and if we do it in One-Day Internationals as well, it will hamper the grooming of home umpires," said Mani.

At present One-Day Internationals are officiated by one neutral and one home umpire.

Pakistan had proposed two neutral umpires in One-Day Internationals after they objected to a few controversial decisions by home umpires in the tri-series in Australia early this year.

Originally posted in HTcricket
Under the proposed format, the host country and top five teams in the ICC one-day rankings would get direct entry while [b]the other four with Test status[b] would play each other for the two remaining places, said Mani.

This could be interesting!

Surely the bottom 2 of those last 4 will be Bangladesh & ZImbabwe. I wonder if the bottom 2/3 teams of the first 8-ranked are prepared to face such a format where they may have to deal with the risk of being left out and making room for ZIM/BD to enter the first 8 to play the Champ Trophy!

Well, on paper, we don't have any chance of being in the 8-nations' ICC Champion's trophy, but we could get the opportunity to face a team who will be under pressure in a knock out match to win.

Remember the New Zealand/ Zimbabwe match in the (qualifying) match in the 1998 Mini World Cup in Dhaka? I think the winning team of that match was supposed to play in yet another knock out match to beat another team.

Either way, we will get a wonderful opportunity to gain an upset victory as we will not be expecting our team to win the qualifying match (but secretly, we'll be hoping for an upset win blink :embaressed: )

fair enough - this way we won't get axed automatically. i wonder whether this will ensure more odi wins for us as well, since our players will know that there's no alternative to a win, and that losing here will be a greater loss than losing in a series ODI or even a WC ODI. we may see more risky shots and a more aggressive attitude, which may lead to either a win or a bad, bad loss.

I am actually quite in favour of this decision. Its great that the ICC is trying to shake up international One Day cricket. The 8 teams decision is also pretty interesting, finally we'll see some competition just to get into the tournament.

since our players will know that there's no alternative to a win, and that losing here will be a greater loss than losing in a series ODI or even a WC ODI. we may see more risky shots and a more aggressive attitude, which may lead to either a win or a bad, bad loss

On the contrary, we'll be going into this tournament in the following mindset:- Its just a game, we'll have nothing to lose if we lose a single ODI, but we'll have everything to gain if we can beat 1 team - preferably either England or West Indies.